Bristol mint hammereds

[Dale]

if i ever do want to sell i would surely let it go to you,having such a local interest.

Thanks Nonker

[Chef Geoff]

LOL but how do they know that it was struck in Bristol that's my point?

[Dale]

LOL but how do they know that it was struck in Bristol that's my point?

I could do with a time machine right now lol Records everything being struck at the mint is recorded, it was William Sharington at the time but he was found to be fiddling the books anyway, so even he could of been in on it

[Dryland]

Why don't you just ask Doug, as he was probably around when the coins were first struck

[probono]

I was looking at iding some Edward I pennies yesterday (one of which is a Bristol class 2b btw) and reading about the centralisation of mint production.

Quite often you will see comments like 'York mint, local dies' - i.e the majority of the coins had the dies made in London and then sent to the local mint centres for striking - it allows for the authorities to have better control of quality and design than say in Henry II's time. Of course there are privy and other marks (often beside the actual mint name) that indicate who was 'in charge' of striking these coins - you would still need to be able to look at what was being produced.

In these circumstances, it's quite easy to see how a mistake was made where a specifically London obverse might be sent out in error to a local mint, and it would take some time for someone to notice and rectify the mistake (by sending out the correct die).

There's also comments that the die were stored in a loose-box arrangement - so you would have a number of obverse and reverse die which you would pick out of a box and pair up, hence mules and different obverse and reverse die combinations.

As Dale said there are also lots of records (somewhere) about production - again yesterday I was reading that some 50,000 pounds of silver Irish pennies were struck in the late 1200's - so from that you can work out that some 12 million were struck - it might even be possible to try and work out a survival rate for these (1 in a thousand would mean there are 12,000 available for collectors for instance).

[Chef Geoff]

Thanks Roland and Dale I've just been doing some reading up and I notice that the Henry VIII isn't "that"unusual so my apologies for as I said my lack of knowledge here as I assumed it was in the same class as the Edward VI, I also read that Bristol was at this time the only mint other than the Tower to have its own engraver but as you say Dale that William Sharington was a "wrong un"  amazingly for the time he not only kept his head after being involved with the Seymour plot but went on to bigger and better things........Who says crime doesn't pay?lol

[Dale]

Thanks Roland and Dale I've just been doing some reading up and I notice that the Henry VIII isn't "that"unusual so my apologies for as I said my lack of knowledge here as I assumed it was in the same class as the Edward VI, I also read that Bristol was at this time the only mint other than the Tower to have its own engraver but as you say Dale that William Sharington was a "wrong un"  amazingly for the time he not only kept his head after being involved with the Seymour plot but went on to bigger and better things........Who says crime doesn't pay?lol

You right Geoff the Henry VIII isn't that unusual, you will see about 50 WS monograms to 1-3 TC they're rarer
One thing I did find out today from my mate who also just found out is, when the Bristol mint closed down (not sure of the date iv just ordered the books) the workers were employed by the London mint, and the dyes were also taken there, it said something about the striking of Bristol and London city mules, il up date the post next week when they arrive.

I added this penny to the collection this week, its been a hard one to get in any condition iv only seen one other for sale but its a little over priced for the condition its in, this one was in a job lot of 5 and not listed as a Bristol, its a little weak on the obverse but its very debased silver

[Chef Geoff]

It closed in March 1550 I only know that from this paper which I thought was quite interesting in it's intrique
http://www.britnumsoc.org/publications/Digital%20BNJ/pdfs/1981_BNJ_51_7.pdf

[Dale]

Cheers for the link Geoff I haven't come across that one

[Dale]

I was looking at iding some Edward I pennies yesterday (one of which is a Bristol class 2b btw) and reading about the centralisation of mint production.

Quite often you will see comments like 'York mint, local dies' - i.e the majority of the coins had the dies made in London and then sent to the local mint centres for striking - it allows for the authorities to have better control of quality and design than say in Henry II's time. Of course there are privy and other marks (often beside the actual mint name) that indicate who was 'in charge' of striking these coins - you would still need to be able to look at what was being produced.

In these circumstances, it's quite easy to see how a mistake was made where a specifically London obverse might be sent out in error to a local mint, and it would take some time for someone to notice and rectify the mistake (by sending out the correct die).

There's also comments that the die were stored in a loose-box arrangement - so you would have a number of obverse and reverse die which you would pick out of a box and pair up, hence mules and different obverse and reverse die combinations.

As Dale said there are also lots of records (somewhere) about production - again yesterday I was reading that some 50,000 pounds of silver Irish pennies were struck in the late 1200's - so from that you can work out that some 12 million were struck - it might even be possible to try and work out a survival rate for these (1 in a thousand would mean there are 12,000 available for collectors for instance).

Roland I bought 3 new books about the Bristol Mint there excellent!! It says for the Thomas Chamberlain coinage of 1549, ninety-six-dozen coining irons were bought from the Tower mint for seven shillings per dozen.

[probono]

That's quite a stack of coining irons! - I wonder how long it took for them to get made?

What are the books on the Bristol mint called?

On a separate note I fairly recently acquired a class 2 Bristol farthing - I'll post some images when I've found it

[Dale]

That's quite a stack of coining irons! - I wonder how long it took for them to get made?

What are the books on the Bristol mint called?

On a separate note I fairly recently acquired a class 2 Bristol farthing - I'll post some images when I've found it

Cheers Roland

The books are called The Bristol Mint by L.V. Grinsell 1962.....1972....1986 all for £11.50 inc postage very cheep ://www.galata.co.uk they have a few more copies about £2.50 for both The early square Bristol farthing I posted awhile back I learnt there was 86,400 struck so there not that rare lol

Here's the new one

[Chef Geoff]

Dale would these have been blanks as Bristol had its own engraver? 7d each sound quite cheap given that a skilled labourer could earn 1/- a day.

[Dale]

Dale would these have been blanks as Bristol had its own engraver? 7d each sound quite cheap given that a skilled labourer could earn 1/- a day.

Il look into it more Geoff, im not sure if Chamberlain had his own engraver its not mentioned?

[Chef Geoff]

I've just looked at dates and there must have been a lot of unused irons about as Chamberlayne took over in December 1548 and the last coins were struck in October 1549 so just 10 months and the closure was planned back in June 1548 4 months before he started......ummm more skulduggery